Eloise

Eeeew! Peters is a pitch-perfect six-year-old Eloise. Thompson chose her herself, and a good choice it was, for few adult actors can make such young characters sound both silly and believable. With delicious humor, Peters recreates the sophisticated, childish, beguiling, and snooty miscreant who lives on the top floor of the Plaza with her dog, her turtle, and her very, very, very British nanny, who frequently utters adjectives and adverbs in threes. Eloise “ab-so-lute-ly luuvves” the Plaza and its staff, whom she runs ragged, making demands of the doormen and management, crawling among patrons and endlessly ordering (mostly caviar) from room service. The first three tales—“Eloise,” “Eloise at Christmas Time,” and “Eloise in Paris”—are delightful. The fourth, “Eloise in Moscow,” is out of kilter with the rest. Without Hilary Knight’s familiar drawings, the audio edition seems like social satire directed at Soviet propaganda, since Thompson makes fun of the endless chatter of Eloise’s Russian translator (comically rendered here by Peters), but this dialogue is repetitive, tiresome, and not well-suited for the intended audience. Ages 7–up. A Simon & Schuster picture book. (Oct.)